Magic City Neighbors Episode 11 - The Barberton Community Foundation and how it works with Tiffany Peters

Welcome back to the Magic City Neighbors on the Mic podcast, episode 11! In this exciting episode, we have a special guest, Tiffany Peters. Tiffany is the Interim Executive Director and the Director of Finance at the Barberton Community Foundation. Her impressive job title is just the tip of the iceberg, as she shares her incredible journey from being a "boomerang" to her career in corporate finance and her transition into the nonprofit world.

Tiffany's passion for making a difference in her community shines through as she discusses the Foundation's role in economic development, saving taxpayers millions, and providing scholarships to students.  Jack has Tiffany unravel the mystery of how the Community Foundation operates and how it helps the City of Barberton thrive. Tune in to discover the inspiring story of how one organization is helping Barberton grow thanks to the dedication of the foundation remarkable individuals in the area. Don't forget to like, subscribe, and share this episode with your Magic City neighbors.

Transcript

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Hey, everyone. Welcome back to Magic City, neighbors on the mic. This is episode 11. I'm here, Jack is here and across the table from me, I have Tiffany Peters, and I am going to read this. She is interim executive director and director of Finance, currently for the Barberton Community Foundation. That is a hell of a title because she does a lot of stuff which is going to make for an interesting conversation. Stay tuned You're listening. The Magic City neighbors on the mike, where we talk to your Barberton neighbors about their stories, their insights and what gets them laughing. Make sure to like, share and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. And now to the show. Thank you guys for tuning in again, like, subscribe and make sure to share with your Magic City neighbors this week. Like we said, we've got Tiffany Peters here and Tiffany, you've got a path, I believe, that led you to having one, two, three, four, five, six words in your current job title. Now, I know, I know one of them's interim, so. But how did you end up here? So I was born in a small town. Just kidding. I was, but, you know, I actually would love to I would love to put in the fact that I'm actually a boomerang. Like Melanie Black motto is The Boomerang. Yeah. It was on your podcast. I grew up in Portage County, moved to Florida, came back. But people say, why did you come back? It's better up here. It really, really is. I love raising my family up here. Love it. So I've spent I have a I have a degree in finance. I have an MBA with a concentration in finance and I.T. So I've spent the last 25 years in my career in corporate finance, in public accounting, doing some litigation work and about eight years ago, I jumped at a nonprofit kind of by chance. I have I don't we're not going to talk about that, but it's not bad. That sounds like it's bad now. An opportunity came up and it was just the timing. So I went into nonprofit and it was the best thing that ever happened to me. The the atmosphere, the the mission and the feeling like you're really making a difference. It just I mean, it gets me right here. Yeah. And the the pace and the schedule is much, much, much better than working in corporate and sure that CPA world that I was in before. And it's I'm sure it's a different it's a very different mindset there. Sure. Because instead of it's pinching every penny, it's making sure that every penny is going out and doing the most good, which is a different way to look at it. Exactly. You you, you really become you really become connected to the community because you hear about all the needs that they have, but you also hear about the generosity of the people and the the people who are willing to volunteer their time and offer leadership for the community. So tastic because Barberton seems to I believe we've mentioned this, Jack, that Barberton seems to have a unique sense of community and so many We have Barberton people, so many Barberton people do not realize this, that this is not something that every place has. No, that's it's so since I mean you've been with the foundation how long now? About a year and a half. Perfect. About a year and a half. So that's long enough to start seeing some change. My goodness. Yes. Oh, it's been a lot of change, even just since I've been here. So I live here also. Yeah, I live I've lived here for nine years. And that's that's kind of how I ended up here. I'm sure I know people who are involved with the foundation. And when I was getting to a point in my previous role where it was just all consuming and it was right, it was just not a good fit for my family. And I found this was available. I, I jumped on it. Oh, of course, jumped on the director finance role. But I'm sorry, what were you asking? I know you were good at it. So, I mean, what's changed in that past year and a half? That's like been a switch. Oh, you mean at the foundation or a Barberton or. There's just been a lot. All of it. There's been a lot. Sure. So one of and one of the biggest changes that I've seen is just the momentum around economic development and Main Street. Okay, That has been such a big push. I know that right before I joined the foundation the year before, we made that final payment on the high school, which we can talk about. Yeah, yes, we made that final payment in 2021 and there was a lot of talk and a lot of discussion about what's really important and necessary and impactful now that we can do with the funds that we have available. And a big part of that was economic development. How do we bring jobs in, how to bring quality, good paying jobs and bring in industry, work with the businesses who are already here, help them grow. That was a big push. That was a big change. We weren't actively doing that before. Now we have Ted, our economic our director of economic development full time doing that and we this year we're slated to give out about half a million dollars in grants related to economic development. Wow. So that's a big change. It's a big change. And we you know, we we recognized the need for that revitalization and we worked with the city and other partners to bring in that Main Street, Ohio group. Yep. To see what can we do here and helped get Main Street off the ground. And that just caused so much excitement. It's really cool to see it is because, I mean, with us being in the studio right down out, right downtown here, not that I've touted that only like every other city, but with us being right downtown here, I am so excited that we're in here now. So we get to watch that. Yeah, that to me is just going to be huge. And if you bring your daughter drinks in. Yes. Yeah, yeah. I mean, you're going to need a coaster with this table, but yeah, bring the door to bring it in. So like, how did the Community Foundation come into existence? Because he's not old enough to know this. Yeah, that's the there's a lot of a lot of people that don't know this, Right. So I'll never forget the the year that it all happened because it's the year I graduated high school, 1996. I lived in Florida. But what what happened was most people are a lot of people are familiar with the fact that Barberton had a citizens hospital and in 1996 there was negotiation and a deal made that was a very favorable deal and the hospital was was up for sale. And a deal a deal was struck to sell it for $86 million. And maybe getting a little bit of semantics for the logistics sharing there. But excuse me, the funds were originally supposed to revert back to the city, but there was a group of concerned forward thinking citizens who said, why don't we put this in a foundation? Why don't we make this last forever? Yeah. Instead of putting it in a bank account to spend now let's make it last forever. And the coolest thing about that is since the since the formation, with that $86 million, we've already given over $110 million in grants, and we still have the endowment. Wow. It's a really cool. It's large. So large that carry the one that moved the decimal point. Yeah, that's a lot. But one of the things doesn't that I don't know if people are aware of because we paid for the high school. That was the first grant that we made. We agreed to pay 2 to 2 and a half million dollars a year for the high school for 25 years. That was a huge that's a huge part of how this initiative got passed was because of that commitment. But that has saved Barberton taxpayers$58 million, $58 million, and you divide that by 25,000 people, so over $4,000 per person. Wow. Over over that time. That's a lot of money. That is a big chunk of money. It's a big chunk of money. So the original endowment came out of that sale. And we've been operating as a community foundation since, and we're not traditional community foundation in the sense of we simply collect dollars from the community, from donors. We are a support organization where we are formed to support the city and the schools and thereby the residents and the students. So it's a little different than if you're thinking of like another community foundation around here. Sure. So it is so it's fully supported then by that an original endowment, correct? Wow, That's amazing. We do you know, we do work with with donors who want to establish scholarships. Yes. We just just recently were so excited about this, just recently finished with Rudy Sharkey's family, setting up the coach, Rudy Sharkey on Memorial Scholarship Fund. That was really cool. Yeah, that's really cool. Those who are assistant and student athletes and there furthering indication it's really cool that is and what makes the foundation different from other things and like how is it regulated. Oh how is it regulated. So yeah like I mean how do you keep you said I mean it still has you've given out 110 million or something like that, giving out over $110 million. But you still have I mean, still have the 86 or whatever. I do that math. And that math does not make a lot of sense in my head that you can give out. You can you have. Right. You give out 86. I've tried that and the bank has called me on that. So. So how does that how does that happen? How is that regulated? How is that done? Well, so it's my favorite kind of assets finance. What we do, what we do, we work with we work with a very intelligent, qualified investment advisors along with our board and our finance committee, to invest these dollars in a safe, relatively safe. You know, we take some risk. But sure, we invest in a wide variety of investments. We're well diversified. To all my finance nerds out there, diversification. I told Kate I wasn't sure if I was going to get personality shine through, but let's go for it. Yes. So we you know, we have we have a robust portfolio and we aim to to earn a certain return on that per year. And in that return that we earn, that's where we do our spending. So if you have let's say you have $100 million and you earn 6%, you know you're going to have $6 million to spend and still have your million dollars. So that's how we get that's how we do our spending. So it's basically off of that investment interest. So say it's off the investment income, correct? That makes sense. So to me, I know I used this before we came on air, but that means I would spend both dollars this year from from my loss of income. Yeah. Yeah. No that's I, I don't know. Can I spend $0.12 on $2? Yeah. Can I. Wow. I can't even shove that in a vending machine error message. Right, Right. Yeah. No, I was even thinking about a hand-crank ones because those are like a dime or a nickel. My might give me a Super Bowl or a jawbreaker or something like that to survive on. Well, to me, I think that I'm. I'm ready for the lightning. Are you. Are you ready for the lightning round? Sure. Okay. So this is kind of what the people want to know as we've asked. And the first one is, is there's I mean, I kind of summed this up. There is some some confusion, I guess I would say, in how the community foundation is tied to the government. Is it? And what's the connection? How's what's that there? So correct. So there is sometimes confusion there. We are a completely separate entity. We have our own board of directors, our own code of regulations. We have our own rules that govern us. But we do we do have since we are supporting org, we have significant influence on our board from the city in the schools. We have a certain number of members to have so that they have a majority of the votes in any situation make sense. And then what's the next thing that we can look for from the foundation? Oh, that's a good question. Why does this of the interim executive director write a new executive director? That's what you can look for. Okay. Yes. Okay. And you can leader the interim will say, well, we'll come off of the title and there will be an actual executive director. And the processes is it's in process. And I get asked all the time, I'm going to spare you the question. I, I may apply, but I, we really just want the right person. We want somebody who is, like Suzanne always said, kind and smart and thoughtful and can work well with with the various leaders in the community. It makes sense. You do seem to fit that bill, though, everything that I know. So that being said, what's the favorite project you've ever been a part of? So I'm always afraid of this favorite thing because there have been a lot of there have been a lot of things that I've really enjoyed working on. What's a memorable one? And that's let's go with that. A memorable one for about oh gosh, six or seven years. I was on the board of directors for the battered women's shelter in Akron and when I started on that board there, their budget, I'm going to get this wrong, but let's just round around numbers. Their budget was around $1 million. They were split up into two small locations, but there was an opportunity to apply for four federal funds to purchase a new a new, larger facility to bring everything under one roof and offer better services, to bring it to bring services to the people much more easily. And it went through it. They were successful. They received I gosh, I feel like it was maybe close to $1,000,000 in the federal funds. And and that just spurred more, more donations, more donors, more support. And it is just it's just blossomed and it's really cool. Those are really cool to be a part of that. Nice. Nice. I'm planning soon. I want to start my own business. And if I do well, you give me money. I need something to fund myself. So it just so happens that we work with community partners who do that. We we cannot grant to individuals or businesses we have to grant to nonprofits. But there are other agencies in the area who do work with businesses such as BCD. See, I don't know if you've had them on here yet. No, they work there. The one of the economic development arms in the in the community and that's that second plan is that we're having on and I guess I don't know if they do startups but they do they do work with companies who either can't or don't want to get traditional financing for various reasons. And we hope we invest in them. Nice, nice, cool. So, I mean, this brings us to our every person questions. And you alluded to the fact that you have something new, unique and different for the what is your favorite Barberton folklore tall tale and or rumor? Let's let's hear it. WALLACE I'm so excited to say this on a podcast that people are going to listen to because I would love to know where this comes from. And it's not super juicy, but I nobody seems to know where this comes from. When we first moved here, so much purple, so much people are like, Where does this purple come from? And the thing that stuck out to me because it was so obscure and it's so simple, there is a there is a legend that the high school needed new curtains and they had a small budget and the only curtains they could afford were these giant purple velvet curtains. And they the community just embraced the purple. They love the purple. And that's where it all started. I have never heard anybody verify. I don't even remember what I heard. This. But it came because the theater curtains were purple and they loved it. And it just it stuck. Interesting. One interesting one. So. Yes. And you see, I said no, but I never heard that. That's very interesting. So we need people to confirm or deny this. I ask people all the time and they don't know. They've never heard this before. No. And I mean, it's funny because now in your position, I mean, I believe most of the time that I have seen you, it has been in some sort of purple jacket. I have lots of all my friends in Akron. And every time they see me, they say, Up it is in purple always. And what do you see as a future for bargaining and where do you think we're headed and what are the bright spots? Gosh, you know, with the bright spots are the the sense of community. There's so many there's so many kind and generous and involved people in this in this town. It it's so it's really encouraging. As someone who works with a lot of them to see the the momentum and the excitement behind things like Main Street that if when we get this off and running, we as a city get Main Street off and running and expand it and and leverage it and springboard off of it, I really see our community, the, the that sense of community and the lovely things that we have to offer this charming downtown and the lake just, just blooming awesome. Yeah that I mean that to me is, is always a that is a great spot and that we both want to thank you for your time. We know I mean six words in your title. You're busy busy busy woman So thank you for a nice break. Good good Glad to hear that. So, but thank you for coming down. We've really enjoyed it. As Jack said in the beginning, Guys, make sure you share all this with your Magic City neighbors and we will see you in a couple of weeks.